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Friday, June 29, 2012

5 Traits of a Cult

For a while now I
have been examining cults and certain practices on how they conduct
themselves, and how the leadership in cults controls their members.

Below is a list of
five traits that many cults tend to have:

(It should be noted that not all cults contain all five of these traits, but many do, and most other cults contain at least four out of five of these traits)

5. Isolation

Perhaps one of the
most well known traits of a cult is the isolation of it's members.
Isolation can include things such as encouraging, or even enforcing
it's members to lessen, or have no contact at all with people who
criticize the cult, including friends and even family.

Some of this is
even more extreme, in which cults not only encourage isolation from
friends and family, but from society itself. This can include
anything from just having only contact with other members of the
cult, and having as little contact with anyone else as much as
possible, to living away from society in compounds.

Another form of
isolation that cults sometimes engage in is to make it's members act in such an
obscene, hostile, annoying, or even forceful manner, that no one
wants to be near them.

4. Financial

Cult leaders often
times encourage their members to give up large sums of money,
usually through either fraud programs that makes a person believe
they will advance in the cult, or as a form of donation to help
advance the cult itself, or in some cases, both.

One of the other
ways cult's get money from their members, and even non-members who
may just have an interest in the cult's teachings, is to sell
overpriced products, such as books that promote the cult's teachings,
or overpriced services that really do nothing. Sometimes it is not
even cult members and people who are interested in the cult that buy
these things, but sometimes it's just ordinary people who get scammed
into buying stuff from these cults.

Other ways cult
leaders control people through finical means is to "encourage",
or more often times try to force it's members to do work for the
cult, usually for either little, or no pay. The difference between
this and volunteering is that with volunteering is that you can leave
whenever you want. With a cult, this might not be an actual option,
and they might try to prevent you from leaving, and can include
anything from being threatened, to being physically kept from
leaving.

3. Extreme
Negative Reaction to Criticism

Many cult members
react very negatively toward criticism. Most often times this
reaction to criticism comes in the form of insults, threats, or long,
sometimes copied and pasted posts on internet message boards and
comment sections, usually as an attempt to silence a critic through either
fear, or posts of attrition. Also this is sometimes done as a way to spread their cult's
propaganda.

Other types of
reactions include much more hostile, and many times, illegal forms of negative reactions,
such as harassment, slander, theft, vandalism, blackmail, and filling frivolous
lawsuits. Sometimes this can even include violent actions, such as
assault, and even in some rare cases, murder.

2. Engaging in
Dangerous, Destructive, or Illegal Behaviors

One of the most
common things cult leaders often encourage their members to do is to
engage in actions and behaviors that can be considered dangerous,
destructive, and even illegal. Many
of these behaviors include greatly encouraging, or intimidating
members into not engaging in certain medical practices that are often
times life saving, or to engage in certain medical practices that
are unnecessary, or to engage in alternative types medical
practices that often times do nothing, or does more harm then good.
Often times these programs that offer such medical practices are run
by the cult itself, or members of the cult.

Another type of dangerous behavior often times encouraged by cults, is for members to tell their secrets to other member. Most of the time this is claimed as a way to "cleanse" ones self. What this is actually used for, most of the time, is to gain information about a member that can be later used to blackmail them, if need be.

Other
types of destructive and illegal actions and behaviors also sometimes
include forcibly isolating members, and holding them
against their will, usually when they're showing signs of mental illness, or
just wanting leave the cult. Still, some other types of illegal
actions can include cult sanctioned abuse, both physical and sexual.
In the most extreme cases, cult leaders sometimes talk about having
their members commit suicide, or commit murder.

1. Secretiveness

Most
cults are very secretive, and many cult members are "encouraged",
or forced, not to reveal certain teaching, or practices, within the
cult to outsiders, or they don't want certain illegal activities to
catch the attention of authorities. Threats of lawsuits, being kicked
out of the cult, and violence, are often very common.

Many
times it's not just the teachings and practices cult leaders don't
want revealed, it's the actions of members within the cult itself, and usually
it's illegal actions they want to cover up.

The
reason why most cults are so secretive is most likely because if any
negative things get revealed, then this tends brings a lot of negative attention
to a cult, and sometimes it can bring down a cult and destroy it, either by authorities, or by members leaving.